The Atlanta Falcons do not have playoff aspirations. Even in a down year for the NFC, Atlanta appears content to sink to the bottom of the conference and line up its dominoes for 2023 and beyond.
And what dominoes those might be.
The Falcons peeled off the 2022 season and dumped it into the trash can long before it could get underway. This is a team undone by circumstance and its own poor decision making, a legacy that’s followed the franchise since its inception in 1966. This season, it reserved more than $56 million in cap space for Matt Ryan and Julio Jones — two of the greatest players in Atlanta history who will decidedly not play a single down for the club this fall. Factor in Calvin Ridley’s indefinite suspension for gambling on NFL games and you’ve got the makings of a truly hopeless rebuilding team.
But the Falcons have the potential to be so much more than that.
Kyle Pitts just being Kyle Pitts.#ATLvsNYJ || #DirtyBirds pic.twitter.com/14CPjE7WOw
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) August 23, 2022
That’s Kyle Pitts, the second tight end in league history to top 1,000 receiving yards as a rookie, split wide and absolutely roasting poor Jets cornerback Bryce Hall. And that’s Marcus Mariota, the starting quarterback who hasn’t started a single game since mid-October 2019, dropping a rainbow into his hands for a 52-yard gain. Mariota hasn’t played much, but in four preseason series he’s led his offense to 17 points while recording a 137.5 passer rating and averaging 14 yards per attempt.
When Mariota’s been on the bench, rookie Desmond Ridder has risen to the moment. In a small sample size he’s made all the right reads, played turnover-free football and used his speed to rack up scrambling yards (59 vs. the Lions in his debut). He’s been good enough to spark an honest quarterback competition even though Mariota looks genuinely refreshed.
We haven’t even gotten to top 10 draft pick Drake London yet, the presumptive WR1 whose catch radius is the football equivalent to water’s placement on earth. He’s missed the bulk of the preseason due to a foot injury — slightly troubling since he missed the tail end of his final season at USC due to a broken ankle — but has the skills to be a rising tide what whichever overlooked quarterback is lobbing passes his way.
The backfield raises similar questions and is similarly fun as hell. Cordarrelle Patterson’s delightful career added a new wrinkle as bonafide RB1 in the Atlanta offense last year, stabilizing a shaky backfield and countless fantasy teams in the process.
He had 100-plus total yards in five games last season and won Most Improved Player honors at age 30, which is absolutely wild in a league where Todd Gurley was out of the league by 27. If he fades, 220-pound dump truck Tyler Allgeier (4.7 yards per carry this preseason, 6.4 yards per carry his final two seasons at BYU) is ready to become the high-usage rookie that saves your fantasy season instead.
None of this means the Falcons will be good. The defense lost its top tackler when Foyesade Oluokun signed with the Jaguars and No. 2 tackler Deion Jones is currently trade bait. Dante Fowler led the team in sacks last year with 4.5 and is now a Dallas Cowboy. The biggest free agent additions were Casey Hayward and Lorenzo Carter to a defense that ranked 30th in overall DVOA in 2021.
This just leaves room for more shootouts and a never-ending string of vertical routes for Pitts and London and sure, why not, Bryan Edwards as Mariota or Ridder try to erase a three-score deficit. It means more funky playcalling directed Patterson’s way as head coach Arthur Smith uses the ample opportunity created by playing from behind to back up his hype as an offensive innovator. It means things are gonna get weird, which is firmly in line with nearly 60 years of franchise history.
This is what the Falcons bring to the table. What they lack in substance they make up for in explosions. They are a Michael Bay film loosed seven seconds at a time in a stadium with $6 beers and $5 cheeseburgers. They are, in fact, 2022’s Greatest Show on (Field)Turf. They’re not gonna win games, but they’re gonna be fun as hell to watch lose.
